My husband and I are both professionals.  I am a qualified school teacher by profession and my husband's specialty is business management and consulting. Presently we operate our own business management and consulting business. We have two office locations. I manage the home office location in the small town in which we live. This situation is ideal as it allows me to be at home full-time with our cats. Our three children are teenagers now. Our eldest daughter is a university undergraduate science student planning on a career in the medical field.  She is a First Degree Black Belt in Goju Ryu Karate. Our other daughter is in her last year of high school and is also planning on pursuing a career in the medical field. Both daughters also work part-time as professional lifeguards and swimming instructors for our city pools.  Our son is the youngest and he excels in swimming and computers.

Animals and nature are my passion and have always been an important part of my life since I was a child. It seems that most of us experience an insecurity with people at one time or another, yet animals are always unconditional. This is the very reason why many of us yearn for the ongoing unconditional love and friendship that often only an animal can provide. I have over 30 years of experience caring for a variety of animals. I have always enjoyed the challenge of breeding a top quality animal and improving a gene pool with each new successive generation.  With this comes the satisfaction of creating a new and unique line of individuals to add to the gene pool as a whole. A gene pool for a serious breeder can be compared to a painter's pallet of paint or a sculpter's clay - with a lot of careful thought, planning and a little imagination, a breeder can create their own unique, yet ideal image of the perfect "specimen". I also take great pleasure in sharing my unique "creations" with others.

We have successfully bred and exhibited Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties) as a hobby since 1998 under the kennel name Starswept. We have always had cats as part of our household since we can remember. After our longhaired pet torbie and white mixed breed cat Rajah passed away of old age, we started our search for a pure breed of cat whose character would fit in well with our existing household.  Therefore,  we wanted to be sure to select a breed of cat that was similar and compatible in temperament to our shelties (gentle, loving, highly intelligent and fun!).  A Maine Coon was a very natural choice for us!

Perhaps you may be wondering where we got the name "Mariama". "Mariama" is an African name meaning "A Gift From God."   We couldn't have found a more appropriate name for a cattery that is home to such very special and treasured felines.  Mariama Cattery is a labour of love for our family. We are dedicated to the protection, preservation and promotion of this wonderful breed of cat. Some interesting reading on the Cat's African Heritage can be found at the bottom of this page.

For people who cannot have a dog we find the Maine Coon to have a lot of dog like (and sheltie like) characteristics.  You can teach them to fetch a small ball or toy. When they want to play it is very common for them to initiate the playing by bringing you the toy they wish to play with.  Their easy-going, gentle, friendly personalities are indeed closer to a dog's, making  Maine Coons adapt easily  to homes with children and multiple pets. All of these wonderful qualities made us instantly fall in love with the breed.

We offer healthy, well bred kittens in a variety of colours. We strive to produce top quality, typey kittens with excellent health, wonderful temperaments, and longevity.  To accomplish this goal we carefully select quality breeding stock with exceptional type, beautiful expression, soundness in structure and temperament.   We have incorporated healthy breeding stock from various bloodlines and pedigrees with Champion to Supreme Grand Champions, Regional Winner, Imported, and Outcrossed  Show Lines as well as  New Foundation Bloodlines. This allows us to maintain an excellent quality, genetically diverse gene pool which is essential for health and longevity. To guide us in this endeavour, we follow the Maine Coon Breed Standard set out by the major purebred cat registering bodies. Mariama cattery is registered with TICA, CFA and CCA .  Our breeding stock has been selected from healthy bloodlines and parentage that are free of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), Hip Dysplasia (HD), and PKD. To date we have not had any cases of HCM, HD, or PKD in our cattery. Our Cattery is FeLV, FIV, Ringworm and Parasite free.

Kittens  are individually handled daily from birth and are raised in a clean, bright, lively family environment with Shetland Sheepdogs, an English Angora rabbit, and a Belgium Waterslager song canary. This ensures maximum socialization from the very beginning which is so important for healthy psychological and emotional development. Also, kittens will eventually be travelling into varying circumstances so we attempt to expose them to as many new sounds, smells and environments as possible so that the transition from our home to yours is an easy one.  

We believe that the key to health and vitality is a quality, nutritious diet. Therefore we feed our cats/kittens a premium all natural cat/kitten food called Felidae and also include healthy snacks to their diet.   We offer written health guarantees (hereditary and congentital defects) and lifetime support.

Ben